EUROSTAR ANNOUNCES NEW YEAR-ROUND CONNECTING SERVICE TO GENEVA

Eurostar has today announced a new year-round service to Geneva via Lille, in partnership with international high-speed train service “TGV Lyria”. From Thursday 9th October, travellers will be able to purchase tickets for the new Swiss route, with the inaugural service leaving London St Pancras on the 14th December 2014.

With an easy connection on to a “TGV Lyria” service in Lille Europe, passengers can travel from London to Geneva in just over 6 hours (London to Geneva will take 6 hours 18 minutes with a 37 minute connection in Lille) with services specially timed to ensure a fast transfer between the two trains.

Recent Eurostar customer research revealed that Geneva is one of the most desirable destinations for UK travellers. With four daytime services each week (on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday), the new Geneva service means passengers can sit back, relax and enjoy beautiful views of France and Switzerland before they arrive.

For those wishing to venture further, the new route offers passengers a convenient way to travel to some of the most popular destinations in Switzerland, with simple onward connections from Geneva to Aigle, Martigny, Sion, Sierre, Visp and Brig.

The new Swiss service coincides with the refurbishment of Lille Europe station designed to significantly increase the capacity of the Eurostar terminal in order to accommodate growth in the number of connecting passengers. The new look Eurostar terminal will be unveiled in December this year.

Return fares start from £116. For more information or to book Eurostar tickets visit www.eurostar.com or call the Eurostar contact centre on 08432 186 186.

€30 million refit for the Eiffel Tower

"It's a process of permanent reflection."

The renovation is part of the city's attempts to promote the tower as more than a top tourist attraction, but as a symbol of the French capital's dynamism and capacity for regeneration.

© ATOUT FRANCE/Jean François Tripelon-Jarry

The deputy-mayor of Paris, Jean-François Martins said: "Originally it was a challenge of engineering innovation; today the challenge is to continue that spirit, by modernising, renovating, reinterpreting the Eiffel Tower while remaining true to its history.

The work has modernised the pavilions on the first floor, introduced access to the outer platform with its spectacular panoramic views of the city to those in wheelchairs. A cinema room shows historic and recent film of the tower.

The project also aims to reduce the tower's carbon footprint by repositioning glass panels to reduce air-conditioning costs in summer, introducing solar panels, installing a rainwater collection system, and using LED lighting.

The renovated floor, however, has a new attraction that is not for the faint-hearted or those with vertigo. Visitors can now stand on a glass floor and see straight down to the ground from a height of 57 metres, rather as they now can on the Aiguille du Midi above Chamonix, although in Chamonix the drop is rather greater.